To the moon and back

Boy's and busses

"Ew I would never hold your hand while you were with a girl...that's not even remotely okay" I sighed finally understanding what he meant. I was acting like a proud mother who just found out her child had their first crush. Jude wasn't a child and, most notably, he wasn't my child. I needed to calm down.

"Sorry...I've never had a sibling before" I said slightly embarrassed.

Jude let out a loud laugh and pulled me in for a hug, resting his chin on the top of my head, "Neither have I"

"But I'm horrible at this" I grumbled into his chest to which he laughed at.

"I wouldn't have chosen anyone else to be my 'older sister who isn't really older', alright?" I pulled away from him and made a face.

"As if you had a choice"

"This is true" he winked picking up his backpack, kissing me on top of the head and waving goodbye to the guys.

"That makes me miss my brothers" Chandler quipped wiping a fake tear, "That is until I remember they used to give me wedgies relentlessly and flushed my gold fish, Mr. Goldsworthy, down the toilet...bunch of freaking animals"

"You named your fish Mr. Goldsworthy? Dude, what the hell?" Andrew asked cracking up.

"I didn't judge you for having a stuffed penguin named ping ping, now did I?" Chandler retorted which made Andrews face go slack.

I tried to hold my laughs in but they proved to be too strong, "Really? Ping ping?"

Andrew clenched his jaw and gave Chandler a glare, "I told you that in confidence, you ass"

"Just like I told you about the Emma Watson pillow in confidence? Screw confidence, mate" Chandler grinned deviously and raised an eyebrow as I continued sputtering in laughter.

"Am I not allowed to have had a childhood?" Andrew snapped as Ethan began laughing as well.

"I almost forgot about ping ping...you know he brought it in his backpack the first day of the ninth grade?" Tears were now coming down our faces and Andrew cracked a smile.

"Ping ping meant a lot" he laughed throwing a pillow at me and flipping the guys the bird.

We all slowly regained composure and soon we all sat in a light silence.

"Why did you bring it to the first day of school?" I prepared for an answer that would have me hooting with laughter and grinned.

"Ping Ping isn't an 'IT'. My mom gave HIM to me when I was three..." Andrews face took on a serenity that made me question whether to smile or feel troubled, "she said that whenever I was afraid, ping ping would take all my fear under his wing"

Chandler and Ethan both smiled slightly with looks that told me this wasn't the first time they were hearing this story. I took a shaky breath and Andrew looked at me, putting a hand on my lap and drawing me close.

"It's okay to talk about her, Harper" he said gently staring me in the eye, "It won't hurt me"

I wish I had realized, in that moment, that he was lying.

~

"I would do amazing things to the president if he looked like Fitz"

I rolled my eyes as Soph drooled and stuffed some popcorn into my mouth.

It was exactly a week after our Dana-scapades (Ethan really wanted a code name for the project) and I had decided I really needed girl time. Don't get me wrong, the guys were normally really good about watching sappy romcoms with me but it just felt different to have estrogen wafting around.